Wherever they look, biophysicists experimenting on
plants and animals find biological batteries. Sometimes
they study large collections of such cells--as in the brain,
or in heart muscle--and sometimes they work with single
cells, but whatever the biological preparation may be, a
measurable electrical phenomenon turns up as it goes
about its process of living. The efforts of generations of
researchers show that the growing tip of an onion root
and the secreting glands of a human stomach follow the
same general rules. A single plant cell displays electrical
properties remarkably similar to those of a single nerve
or muscle cell of the frog. This chapter and the next
take up some of the generalizations applying to normally
acting nerve and muscle cells--generalizations stemming
in large part from measurement of electrical events.

To begin at the beginning, consider the plight of the
physiologist setting out to study electrical activity of tissues. He is like someone abandoned on a desert island
with an unlabeled phonograph record and no record
player. Those grooves on the record hold something
fascinating to hear, maybe even beautiful, if only their

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